Purr your request

Today is a FINE day. Please, dear reader(s?), ignore my whiny tone in any previous posts, because life is good. Would you like to know why? 

For one thing, I found this bag at a local shoppette:

The birdies are both shades of my favorite color of blue:

The best part is that the bag is not leather, it is PVC, which the girl behind the counter assured me was endangered. Death to all the Naugas and PVC that still insist on walking the earth!!!

I haven't bought anything for myself in quite some time (well, a few weeks...but that would be like a heroin addict not touching smack for a day or two, so I think I have come leaps and bounds), and yes, I bought it. I deserve it, and it makes me happy. 

Know what else makes me super f*cking happy? The fact that another day passes and my babies are all safe and sound. Here is a picture from about two minutes ago, where they are all settled in to their "spot":

Ninja Kitty Wells and her 22 digits:

 

Monsignor Earl, avec sa moustache:

...and Miss Lily. The best part about this is that she is relaxed...and happy. She has horrible allergies so any moment that she isn't itchy and suffering I breathe a sigh of relief for her. Observe, she sleeps. Ahhhhhh......

Next up? My HOUSE. Usually I have an office day on Mondays, and much of this day I do my workin' from home. However, my house is usually in such a state of disarray and messiness that one would think a rabid leafblowing machine got loose in said apartment, wreaking havoc on all that is inside. Unfortunately, it is just a manifestation of my psyche, which happens to usually have "clothes all over its floor" so to speak. You can imagine the effect this has on my workaday productivity.

Yesterday I woke up with the will to clean like I hadn't had in a long time. We are talking, move the furniture around (I'm talking to you, piano), get down on the hands and knees with the Pet Hair Magnet* to clean the entire carpet, and just generally "do it up". 

*because the vacuum bit the dust, and not in its intended way, many moons ago.

Before:

After:

I only have the pics of half the house for now, but as soon as the fed ex guy leaves I am going to take pictures of the rest. Oh my, I've said too much.

Also I can't leave this out....I have another episode of True Blood to watch, PLUS I have the first two books in the series WITH THEIR ORIGINAL COVERS.

I get so pissed off when a movie or a series gets made that is based on a book, then some contractual b*llshit causes the covers to change forever to some stupid movie poster scene. 

I mean, that would be like, taking a great album cover and changing it based on whatever douchebag decided to play the songs. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if that poop fiend Kenny G had total creative license to change the album cover to say, "What a Wonderful World"?

Ugh....that'll replace the whale in me nightmares, to quote the sea captain.

These are choppy waters that I tread though, because in making this comparison one might think I do not approve of the television series, which of course, I do...

I just don't approve of HBO's cheesy promo poster for it.

It's funny that I wouldn't like the cheesy promo poster because the show itself is really...just so cheesy. However, I maintain that it's cheese is appealing because of the campy and self-mocking nature that it upholds. Plus, the vampire/human sex is steeeeeeamy! You can't have watched Episode Ten without telling me that you fantasized about someone crawling out of the ground and having their way with you. You just can't. Not even you, mom....just kidding. My mom doesn't get HBO.

Alright, that'll do it for now. It's off to watch that episode then spend about ten hours on Facebook. Then it's off to the eye doctor, where they just might have to call the authorities when they see the telltale signs of internet addiction.....will YOU come visit me in rehab?

November 11: Veterans Day

My Dad is a World War II veteran. I don't think a day went by at our house that he didn't tell us a story about being in the war. Most of my dad's stories were so humorous and poignant, they brought tears to our eyes from laughing. Even though much of it must have been pure hell, he gathered up the good times and let them live on, as if every time he told a good story it would take the strength away from a bad memory. There were certain tales he told dozens of times, but none of us would dream of telling him we heard it before.....

A couple of years ago Dad wrote a sort of mini memoir for Colgate University, along with several other men who were in the war. I thought I might post an excerpt from it here: 

(Written in the winter of 2006, by Richard M. Hall)

Our graduation in the December snows of Hamilton led directly to time in the service for most of us. About a month after graduation I joined Paul Thompson, Jack Sinn, Charlie Feuerbach and Keith Lyman in accepting Uncle Sam's invitation to attend Fort Dix. We were soon shipped out. I was sent to Indiana for basic. I think I speak for all of us in saying that we were glad to leave Dix and Sergeant Lidak...that guy made drill sergeants seem like kindly old grandmothers.

After basic I went to Slocum near new York City and on August 20th shipped out for North Africa. I was on the former Italian luxury liner the Conti Grande but it had been refitted to something less than luxury. as I recall the canvas bunks were five deep down on F deck. We went for meals twice a day and were allowed out on an open deck twice a day for about twenty minutes each. We were in a large convoy and passed through Gibraltar on September 1, 1943 then into Oran on September 2. about three days later I was put in a replacement battery of the 36th division artillery. We were soon sent out 20 miles or so from Oran to a wild area along the Mediterranean coast that we had to clear of brush before we could put up tents that would be our home for about a month. a steep rocky bank led down to the sea and we swam there almost every day. Long hikes were also the order of the day. The weather was perfect - warm and dry during the day with cool nights. At the time I thought that I would have liked spending all the Septembers of my life along that Algerian Coast.

In late September we boarded amphibious assault boats and headed for Italy. Once aboard we were diverted to Bizerte because the outcome of the battle of Salerno, which started on September 9, 1943, was still in doubt. The 36th was the first American division to land on continental Europe and the Germans were doing their best to push them back into the water. It was a near thing. Counting the British troops that also landed, there were something over 12,000 casualties in nine days. Out artillery at times was firing direct fire at tanks and troops that had broken through. I always remember Dan C. Saying the the Germans were shooting 88's around like small arms fire. 

After Salerno the fighting moved north and when it reached a point above Naples our ship went into the harbor there. The bar there is beautiful with Sorrento, the islands of Capri, Ischia and other small islands and then Vesuvius in the near background. Vesuvius was moderately active at the time and gave the German bombers a good reference point to their bombing of the harbor and Naples in general.

The next day we got on trucks and went down to the Salerno area and joined the units that would be out "home" for the remainder of the war. I was put in the survey section of the Division Headquarters battery. Our job would be to give accurate survey information to all of our four artillery battalions. the head of the survey section, Joe S., greeted me with a handshake, a first for me in the army, and he probed to be a life long friend, as did most of the rest of the men in the section(usually eight in number).

The division was in rest and getting replacements into the ranks after the battle of Salerno, but we soon moved up to Pozzouli north of Naples and did a lot of practice survey work to develop speed that would pay off later on when we were in combat.

In the middle of November we moved up to the Mignano area and into combat. I didn't know what to make of the first shells coming in. in that particular case they were looping way over us to targets in our rear, but it was new to me and it takes a while to get used to the different sounds.

For the next six or seven weeks we were involved with all the fighting  between Mignano and Cassino Places like "Million Dollar Mountain" (the cost of the shells we used there), Purple Heart Valley (made prominent by Margaret Bourke-White's book and pictures of the same name), Venafro, Sammucro, Sam Pietro (John Huston's movie of that name was considered one of the best movies of WWII and shot right during combat there), then more small towns and finally Cassino itself. All that ground between Mignano and Cassino was gained at a high cost to our infantry. The fall rains had turned the land into a quagmire. Rain and incoming shells were a way of life yet the soil was so much of a slurry that many of the shells didn't detonate. Several years after the war I read that over 1400 children had been killed by those shells.

That is the first part of the memoir. I will post more shortly. Thanks for reading! 

 

Don't See Why You Don't Stay a LIttle Longer

It's been a strange couple of weeks. On a national level, hope abounds.  On a personal level, it's been pretty much crap. 

The good news? I think this phase might be coming to an end. It may be the Screamin' Jay Hawkins record I keep playing over and over, or it may be the Sailor Jerry Rum that keeps finding it's way to my beverages, but I am optimistic. Seriously....having a bad month that doesn't kill you is not that bad. I mean, we all have to take our turns, right? Plus, this always happens near the turn of the seasons, or the changing of the clocks. 

In any case, I feel that it might be appropriate here to make a list. A list of the things, currently, that are lighting up my brain cells, are making me feel like it's all worth it. Aside, of course, from the people and animals that make every day tolerable. You know who you are....the three of you that read this blog, and the rest of you. You all rock the house of E-mile.

Here we go.....

READING IS GRATE

I am, and will always be, the type -o- gal to have about ten different books going at once. Here are the current selections next to the bed, on the kitchen table, etc.:

1.) Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisa Pessl

It's a debut novel. It's modeled after an English Literature syllabus, with more literary and cultural references than a ten foot high stack of New Yorkers. It is brilliant. It is maddening, because the author is the precise opposite of a "late bloomer". It is inspiring, because you know there is at least one person out there that is using a whole giant portion of their brain, as opposed to most of us that are using that piddly little five percent, or whatever the number is.

The characters are nauseating and fascinating all at once, kind of like an episode of Gossip Girl crossed with several Norton Anthologies. Good times.

2.) The Dead Travel Fast by Eric Nuzum

For some reason, vampires have come a callin' lately, seemingly to feed on my general sense of fascination. I always love Nosferatu, which coincidentally was the first thing I wrote about in this 'ere blogerola. Also, up out of the coffin of cheesy HBO series pops True Blood, one of the most addicting

 shows I have witnessed in recent days. It is so full of cheesy acting, sex, and actually some awesome music.....that is my achilles combination. More on that later....

Anyways, this book is a book about vampire culture, and is Choc(ula) full of all kinds of history and accounts and the like.

3.) Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

I have always toyed with becoming a music therapist, but I have the sense that I would like the schooling better then the practice. I wonder if in reality, it would mean a lifetime of playing Beatles songs to kids from the short bus. Actually, that sounds pretty damn fun....I just don't really love the Beatles that much. 

Actually, I see how music has this power (duh) over folks and I wish I could help use that power for amazing things. Namely, to help people find their identity, their passion, their best best self. 

This book looked so completely interesting and very on-topic. I bought it. It may be dry as hell, which I swear will piss me off. I think my sister has read it...(sister? care to comment?) and if memory serves, she named a book or two that were much better on the subject. Verdict is still out.

4.)Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perry

There are these two friends of mine, a couple, and they are people that somehow, I feel that I have known since I was small (f*cking long time ago, right?). If I believed in such things,  I would venture to say that I knew them in some other life.  They told me about Laurie Perry, a.k.a. Crazy Aunt Purl's blog and book....I related to the story they told me and without ever having read her blog, I bought the book. I love this woman to death. She got divorced, she learned to knit. She wrote a g-damn book. She has a bunch of cats, she is funny as hell. I look at her blog every day. Okay, so, I haven't yet delved into the book, but I am sure it will be awesome, because the author is someone I wish was in my posse of friends. One of my plans for the year is to learn to knit like a badass. My mom is an amazing knitter, she belongs to project Linus, and I figure, maybe her skill with the needles is hereditary?? I sure hope so. Maybe I can forgive her for the cellulite if that is the case.

MUSIC TIME

I got ten kinds of overwhelmed when I thought about writing about everyone I have been listening to lately, so I thought I would just post my favorite songs of late. Click on the links and enjoy....

Nick Cave: Empty Little Boat

Nick Cave: Grief Came Riding

Neko Case: Tightly

Neko Case: Blacklisted

Neko Case: I Wish I Was the Moon

 The Handsome Family: Drunk by Noon

Jelly Roll Kings: Have Mercy Baby

Devotchka: Dark Eyes

Devotchka: Along the Way

Granada: written by Isaac Albeniz, performed by Emilio de Benito

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: You Made Me Love You

I believe I will close out for now. Please stay tuned for Part II of what turns my crank, also known as Why I  Have been Swearing so Goddamn Much.

Later, taters.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys: Stay a Little Longer